Seven in area eyed for gouging

Stations may face fines

Posted: Thursday, October 23, 2008

By Don Nelson

State anti-gouging investigators will check records from at least seven Athens-area filling stations to see if pump operators overcharged motorists last month during a supply panic blamed on Hurricane Ike.

The Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs subpoenaed records from two stations in Clarke County, three in Jackson County and one each in Barrow and Madison counties, said Shawn Conroy of the consumer affairs office.

Those businesses, as well as gas stations in Elbert, Morgan and Newton counties, are among 166 across Georgia the consumer affairs office intends to review based on price-gouging complaints from consumers, Conroy said.

More stations may face investigations, which can take months, Conroy said.

Consumer affairs will not name the businesses, Conroy said.

"We want those stations to show us that their increase in cost accurately reflected the amount they were charged by their distributor," he said.

Any station's price increase should reflect only a higher cost charged by the distributor, and not any extra markup.

Ike's landfall in East Texas disrupted several oil refineries and choked the supply of gas to stations across the Southeast. As a result, Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency that triggered the state's anti-gouging law Sept. 12.

More than 1,500 people telephoned gouging complaints to consumer affairs, and countless others responded by e-mail, fax and letter, Conroy said.

In 2005, following a gas price surge blamed on Hurricane Katrina, consumer affairs fielded more than 6,000 gouging complaints and ended up fining and/or ordering reimbursements from 80 businesses, including seven in the Athens area.

This year, only one of those stations received another complaint, Conroy said.

"Recidivism is low," he noted.

Potential fines for filling stations found guilty of price gouging are between $2,000 and $2,500 per violation, Conroy said.